Adaptive non-backstepping neural control for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown time-delay

This paper deals with an adaptive robust tracking control using a multilayer neural network (NN) for a class of nonlinear dynamic systems with unknown time varying state delays. Typical adaptive NN backstepping controllers for uncertain nonlinear systems with time-delay give rise to computation complexity caused by the the repeated derivatives of virtual controllers and nonlinear functions. Moreover, the combined techniques usually result in only uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB) stability caused by the inherent NN approximation error. This paper presents a control scheme that uses an integral sliding mode control as a feedback term and an adaptive neural controller as a feedforward term based on the desired compensation adaptive law (DCAL) technique. First, we develop a new DCAL formulation which avoids the explosion of complexity caused by the general NN backstepping scheme to compensate for nonlinear system uncertainties, bounded system disturbances, and unknown state time delays. Then, using a Lyapunov-Krasovskii (LK) functional, it is shown that the proposed controller renders the class of uncertain nonlinear time-delay systems asymptotically stable.